Happy New Year 2019
Today I want to encourage you in your walk with God. How is your walk with God? In the Bible, in the book of Genesis, we read about Enoch and Noah. They were men that walked with God. Genesis 5:22 “And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:” Genesis 5:24 “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” Genesis 6:9 “These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.”
Are you meeting with God in prayer and reading His word? What a great opportunity we have, as we enter the new year, to renew or start some really great Christian disciplines of prayer and reading and studying the Bible. Jesus tells us about prayer in the Bible. Luke 18:1says “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;.” Jesus taught us how to pray in the Lord ’s Prayer. Many call this the Disciples’ Prayer because He was teaching and instructing them and us how to pray!
I would like to encourage you to plan to read the Bible through this year and every year for that matter. There are a number of ways to accomplish this. You can read the Bible straight through from Genesis to Revelation on your own or use a helpful printed schedule. There are 1,189 chapters in the Bible and by reading 3+ chapters per day you can finish reading the Bible in one year. There are printed reading plans that have you read some from the Old Testament and New Testament and other sections each day to help you read and keep on track. There are also Chronological Bible reading plans available. I personally use a Bible that is set up to read 85 verses per day to accomplish reading the Bible through the year. There are 31,101 verses in the Bible, so by reading 85 verses per day you can read through the Bible in a year. Some of these Bible reading plans can be found by searching for them online and download them to your computer. There is also a link to a Bible reading plan on our Church website, BancroftBaptist.Com. I would also encourage you, if you have not done so, to download the free Bible App to your Smart phone and all other mobile devices.
Notice what we read in the Bible about its value to the heart and life. We read of the power of the Word of God in our life over sin in Psalm 119:11. “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” The palmist declares his dedication to meditate on God’s Word in Psalm 119:148 “Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.” Jesus says our sanctification is through the Word of God, when He prayed in His High Priestly Prayer in John 17:17 “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” In the first of Jesus’ temptations, Jesus declares in Matthew 4:4 “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” The Bible tells us the way of Salvation is through the Word of God. In 1Peter 1:23 it says “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” We also read in Colossians 4:16 “And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.” Also we read 2Ti 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. I believe the Bible was intended to be read publically and private, meditated upon, preached, shared and studied. Happy New Year, and as my old Pastor used to say “”Stay in the Word”. If ever I can be of spiritual help and service to you, please feel free to contact me! Happy New Year.
